Phil Gifford lists four talking points as the Rugby World Cup in France gets real.
Anything else and pigs are airborne
Mark the date down.
Eight o’clock New Zealand time on the morning of Sunday, October 29. In Paris, the All Blacks will be playing the Springboks in the finalof the 2023 World Cup.
After South Africa edged past an over-anxious French team, 29-28, in the last quarter-final, they’ll now play, and beat, England next weekend in one semifinal.
The All Blacks, after their titanic battle to beat Ireland, will win against Argentina in the other.
I’m not a gambler, but I know nobody will get rich backing the favourites next weekend. The TAB is paying $1.10 for an All Blacks’ win against the Pumas, and $1.16 for a South African victory against England.
Why will South Africa make the final?
Because if they were hard-minded, and physically powerful enough, to rattle and beat a very good French side in a quarter-final, they’ll sweep a lacklustre England aside.
France, who most non-involved spectators would have wanted in the final, have forever based their rugby on high-speed, daring attack, with handling that bordered on the sublime.
But the Boks’ defensive line swept up so quickly, the French too often turned over the ball, or knocked on. They were also jittery under the barrage of high kicks the South Africans launched.
You could only marvel at the courage of French captain Antoine Dupont, playing his heart out just three weeks after his cheekbone was fractured, but the ugly fact was that too often he and his team resorted to hopeful kicks, rather than running, as the game see-sawed.
England's Ollie Lawrence (left) and Fiji's Waisea Nayacalevu hug at the end of their quarter-final at the Stade de Marseille in Marseille. Photo / AP
He’s a match-winner
Springboks wing Cheslin Kolbe is a one-man danger zone. Exactly the same height (1.71m) as Aaron Smith, at first glance he looks like a schoolkid who somehow jumped the fence and joined the game.
In fact he’s as tough and strong as he’s blisteringly fast.
How smart a thinker is Kolbe? His try in the 25th minute summed up a lot about his game. There was a panicky slap of the ball by the French prop Cyril Baille. When the ball was turned over, Kolbe stayed onside, and was perfectly positioned to streak to the line off a Jesse Kriel grubber kick.
How quick is he? He charged down an attempted conversion by Thomas Ramos in the 21st minute, a feat so rare in tests they’re basically a once- or twice-in-a-lifetime occasion. The only one I’d ever seen before was in Sydney in 1998 when Wallaby Stephen Larkham charged down an Andrew Mehrtens conversion.
What about England?
There was something very fitting about the fact that England sealed their 30-24 win against Fiji with first a dropped goal by Owen Farrell and then a penalty by Farrell. This is a side that lives by the boot.
“I don’t care what people think about us,” said English coach Steve Borthwick after the game. Just as well.
Booed onto the pitch by neutrals, his side played a dreary, defensive, crash-and-bash style that might have failed against the daring Fijians if referee Mathieu Raynal had watched England at the breakdown as closely as he watched the Fijians.
The problem for Borthwick’s Bores? In South Africa, they’ll meet a team that can play just as grim a metre-by-metre game as them, but have the added benefit of some genuinely brilliant attacking backs.
In simple terms, next weekend the World Cup Lite side of the draw meets the real thing. And for only the second time in Cup history, the old rivals, South Africa and New Zealand, are headed for the final.
